This application claims priority from British Application No. 9811293.1 filed on May 26, 1998.
This invention relates in general to the field of telephony and in particular provides a method and system for intelligent call transfer of incoming calls.
A typical organization is characterized by having a number of individuals, which may be grouped by functional area or department, each accessible by telephone. Typically, each person has their own telephone connected to a private branch exchange (PBX) operated by the organization, and has their own extension number, which is accessible through a main organizational switchboard. An outside person who desires to contact a person within the organization calls a common central organizational telephone number and request the attendant, sitting at a switchboard or console, to transfer the call to the desired person. This is a difficult task, for it requires the attendant to know the names and associated extension numbers of every person in the organization. For large organizations, the caller must wait while the attendant looks up and locates the called person""s name in a directory before transferring the call. In addition, where the caller does not know the surname, or the spelling of the last name, significant time and effort can be spent, while the caller waits, before the correct callee is identified.
In the field of telephony, telephone companies who provide standard telephone service to individuals and organizations offer a service where the identity of the caller is communicated to the callee at the time of placement of the call. Thus, by the time the phone starts to ring, the callee can ascertain the identity of the caller.
There are also known in the art various application programming interfaces (APIs), such as the TAPI specification for the Microsoft(copyright) Window(trademark) environment, which facilitate the provision of telephony related services by a personal computer. As such, computer applications can be notified about calls, answer calls, hold calls and perform other call and switch related functions as if the application is the end-point of the call.
This invention provides a system and method to speed up call transfer activity performed by an attendant. It takes advantage of the fact that most callers repeatedly call the same person or subset of people at an organization. Using the caller identification information provided by the telephone company, a database is created which stores information on each incoming call and maintains a record or log of the transfer destination. When a later call arrives from the same caller, the attendant is presented on the graphical interface console a list of previous transfer destinations which are likely destinations for the current call. The attendant can then transfer the call to one of the destinations presented on the list by merely selecting the desired item on the list, which signals the telephone exchange, transferring the call to the desired destination. This provides a simple, efficient means to transfer the call, without requiring the attendant to do a directory search for the name or identity of the proposed call destination. Additional information can also be provided on the console such as the status of the person being called, and call destination alternatives should the person being call not be available. This reduces the number of calls transferred to unreceptive destinations, and increased the likelihood of quick, successful call connection to a useful destination for the caller. The invention could also be employed in automated attendant environments where upon answering the incoming call, the automated attendant presents the list of previous destinations called to the caller early during the call, obviating the frustrating need of a caller to navigate time consuming multi-menu messaging systems to connect to a frequently called destination. Therefore, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for transfer of incoming calls received by an attendant comprising the steps of:
(a) obtaining the caller identification of the incoming call;
(b) initiating a search on a database using the caller identification;
(c) retrieving a list of previous call transfer destinations from the database corresponding to the caller identification;
(d) displaying the list on an attendant console contemporaneous with the incoming call;
(e) selecting a desired transfer destination from the list on the console thereby transferring the incoming call to the desired transfer destination. Also, according to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for transfer of incoming calls received by an automated attendant comprising the steps of:
(a) obtaining the caller identification of the incoming call;
(b) initiating a search on a database using the caller identification;
(c) retrieving a list of previous call transfer destinations from the database corresponding to the caller identification;
(d) presenting the list to the caller of the incoming call;
(e) selecting a desired transfer destination from the list presented to the caller thereby transferring the incoming call to the desired transfer destination. According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for transfer of incoming calls received by an attendant, the system comprising:
(a) means for switching the incoming call;
(b) caller identification means for obtaining the caller identification of said incoming call;
(c) database means containing previous call transfer destination information;
(d) console means coupled to said switching means and caller identification means and said database, having:
(i) means for handling the audio aspect of said incoming call;
(ii) means for searching and retrieving from said database a list of said previous call transfer destination information corresponding to said caller identification;
(iii) means for displaying said list contemporaneous with said incoming call;
(iv) means for selecting a desired transfer destination from said list to switch said incoming call to said desired transfer destination.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for transfer of incoming calls received by an automated attendant, the system comprising:
(a) means for switching the incoming call;
(b) caller identification means for obtaining the caller identification of said incoming call;
(c) database means containing previous call transfer destination information;
(d) automated attendant means coupled to said switching means and caller identification means and said database, having:
(i) means for searching and retrieving from said database a list of said previous call transfer destination information corresponding to said caller identification;
(ii) means for presenting said list to an incoming caller upon answering said incoming call;
(iii) means for receiving a selection of a desired transfer destination from said list to switch said incoming call to said desired transfer destination.